Rangers suffered a 3-2 defeat to Hibernian in the final of the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park in Glasgow on Saturday afternoon.

The Gers, who won the Scottish Championship title with ease this past season, were defensively poor against Hibs.

Former Rangers defender Gough believes that the defeat to Hibernian, who will play in the Scottish Championship next season, demonstrated that Mark Warburton’s side still have a lot of work to do in order to be competitive in the Scottish Premiership next season.

“Players will go and others will arrive to strengthen the squad ahead of a return to the Premiership,” concluded Gough. “Improving Rangers are not the finished article yet. But their players will come back for pre-season even more determined now.”

Rangers were the best team in the Scottish Championship, but they still do need to strengthen in the summer transfer window in order to have a successful 2016-17 Scottish Premiership campaign.

Many Rangers fans will expect Warburton’s side to compete with Old Firm rivals Celtic for the Scottish Premiership title next season. However, realistically the Gers’ main objective next season should be to finish second or third.

Subhankar Mondal

A football journalist based in Wakefield, Subhankar Mondal has previously worked for Goal.com International and Skysports.com, and has had his sports articles published in The Guardian and The Observer. He has also been on the BBC in the past and his name once found its way to the pages of the World Soccer magazine. He was recently cited in a major Louis van Gaal biography.